A southeast Georgia man was arrested and charged with the murder of a couple at a black church in 1985 after the original suspect – who spent 20 years behind bars – was exonerated based on DNA evidence , authorities said.
Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, was jailed on murder and aggravated assault charges in the killings of Harold and Thelma Swain, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced in a news release Monday. Sparre was arrested nearly four decades after the couple was fatally shot at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in coastal Camden County.
Sparre became the subject of a new investigation into the Swains’ deaths after authorities concluded they had initially pursued the wrong person.
Dennis Perry was sentenced to life in prison when a jury convicted him in 2003 of murdering the Swains. He spent two decades in prison before a Superior Court judge ordered a new trial in 2020. The judge dismissed all charges against Perry in 2021 after prosecutors asked to dismiss the case.
Georgia Innocence Project
Investigators and courts reexamined the case after attorneys with the Georgia Innocence Project tested DNA from hairs found in the hinge of a pair of glasses left next to the victims’ bodies. They said the DNA matched Sparre, who had once been considered a suspect, and not Perry.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sparre’s alibi that he worked at a grocery store at the time of the murders could not be true. The newspaper also cast doubt on Perry’s conviction, pointing out that jurors were never informed that a key witness was receiving a $12,000 reward before testifying.
Sparre’s ex-wife, Emily Head, told police in 1986 that he confessed to the murders in a recorded phone message to his family, the newspaper previously reported.
The GBI said Sparre was arrested in Waynesville, where he lives, about 90 miles southwest of Savannah, Georgia, and booked into the Camden County Jail. He was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault, according to jail records.
Sparre has previously denied killing the Swains. A phone number listed for Sparre was not working Tuesday and it was not immediately known whether he had an attorney representing him.
Since his release from prison, the original suspect, Perry, has spent time with that wife and reconnected with family and friends, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
“It took a long time, but I never gave up,” Perry told the organization after his exoneration in 2021. “This indictment has been hanging over my head for over 20 years, and it’s a such a relief to no longer have to worry about being accused of this horrible thing.
